Erie police detectives are continuing to collect information from a number of sources in their ongoing investigation into a March 29 fire at an East 26th Street apartment house that caused the deaths of two young children and critically injured a third.
A 5-month-old girl remained hospitalized in Pittsburgh April 2 following the fire, which broke out in her family’s second-floor apartment at 535½ E. 26th St. shortly before 4:30 p.m. March 29. Erie firefighters who responded to the fire found the girl and two siblings, a 5-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, in a bedroom of the apartment and rescued them from the burning building.
The three children were taken to UPMC Hamot. The 5-year-old boy, identified by Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook April 1 as Tobias Huff, and the 3-year-old girl, identified by Cook as Da’liyla Huff, were pronounced dead at the hospital.
The two children have been released to a funeral home, Cook said April 2. He said he is still awaiting the results of toxicology testing on the children, noting that there was no evidence of thermal injuries on either child.
The 5-month-old girl, whose name has not been released, was transferred from UPMC Hamot to a Pittsburgh hospital. Updated information on her condition was not available April 2.
Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook has identified the two young children who died in a fire at their apartment at 535 1/2 E. 26th St. March 29.
Authorities said the fire started in the kitchen of the second-floor apartment and caused significant damage to that room, as well as to a portion of the building’s attic. Don Sauer, chief fire marshal for the Erie Bureau of Fire, said March 31 that an investigation into the fire led them to determine it was set off accidentally, but the exact cause was unknown.
Alarming numbers: Twelve have died in 10 fires in Erie County over 14-month span
Investigators reported that no adults were believed to have been home at the time the fire broke out.
Erie police detectives have collected surveillance video and are still conducting and working to set up interviews as their investigation into the fire continues, Police Chief Rick Lorah and detectives reported April 2.
Anyone with information that could assist in the ongoing investigation is asked to call Erie police Detective Sgt. David Madurski at 814-870-1508.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Children killed in in fatal Erie fire identified